See subject. I’ve just been watching YouTubes of surprise marriage proposals, surprise soldier homecomings, and 9/11 street scenes. Besides making myself weepy, I thought of this question.
A lot of people cover their open mouths in any circumstance. I’ve noticed some Japanese women cover their mouths any time they laugh. I assumed it was a cultural thing about the open expression of emotion.
I thought it was rude to show teeth/open mouths - like when yawning.
Bad (or nonexistent) dental work.
I have read that Japanese women cover their mouths when they laugh so you can’t see their teeth because teeth are parts of your skeleton just hanging out of your head, and ever since I read that, true or not, when I think about it it kind of freaks me out.
I read somewhere that Japanese women cover their mouth when laughing because teeth look like tombstones, and that is not appropriate to relate to death at a happy time.
I have seen American girls and women do this, especially when giggling over something naughty. I do it sometimes, too, it seems to be a learned behavior as to hide your response.
I heard a lecture once by Roger Fouts where he described how chimps can be deceptive, but not always sneaky. They set up a situation where some sort of treat was hidden in a box, only known by one chimp. Then the others in the group were let back in the area. While they were all milling around the box, the chimp in the know scampered off to a different area and started romping around making some noise. One by one the other chimps came over to see what’s what. Once they were all over there and preoccupied, the first chimp snuk back to the box and pulled out the treat. She was so excited, she squealed and whooped. Seemingly unable to not vocalize her excitement, all she could do was cover her mouth to mute the sound.
Maybe it’s got something to do with that.
As Calvin said to Hobbes when one of his baby teeth came out: “I’m not entirely comfortable holding a piece of my own head.”
I searched everywhere for the original strip and couldn’t find it.
Will the great username/post coordinations ever stop?
Yeah, wait until you see what itreally looks like.